1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of anchoring devices for securing structural building members together, and more specifically to an anchoring device for securing the bottom member of a truss to the top of a wall.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have long been anchoring devices for securing beams to concrete structural members, and alternatively to perpendicular beams. The concrete anchors have often been large bolts, each bent at a right angle and placed in concrete prior to curing. These bolts are typically heavy and expensive, concentrate the anchoring load on a single line, and fail to provide a secure and convenient coupling structure for attachment to a beam. The perpendicular beam anchors are typically straps and truss plates with ends bent a quarter turn relative to each other around their longitudinal axes to present properly oriented faces for nailing onto perpendicular beams. A problem with these straps and truss plates is that they only attach to one face of each beam, so that two of them must be used to achieve balanced and secure anchoring. The additional number of skilled man hours necessary to fasten two separate anchors to each beam makes this option expensive. Another problem with straps in particular is that they can pivot on their fasteners and permit a dangerous range of play between the beams.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an anchoring device for joining two perpendicular members together, which fastens to two faces of at least one member for secure and economical connection.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such an anchoring device which includes a coupling structure for easy and fast attachment to the members.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such an anchoring device which has multiple, spaced apart concrete anchoring elements for a more secure, distributed load.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such an anchoring device which is inexpensive to manufacture.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an anchoring device that can meet building code standards of at least 2,100 psi for anchoring structural beams to structural members such as concrete.